Palm Beach State College

Biotechnology career opportunities continue to grow in South Florida. The highest growth categories will be research technicians and associates. Biotechnology is an applied biological science that uses living organisms to create products, perform valuable processes, and solve problems or otherwise benefit humans and/or surroundings.

Palm Beach State College offers two degree programs in biotechnology. Students may choose to enroll in the Associate in Arts (AA) degree program, designed for those students who are planning to transfer to a four-year university, or the Associate in Science (AS) degree, which prepares students for entry into employment in the biotechnology industry, research institutions and related industries.

Our award winning program is taught by a renowned scientific faculty. made up of doctorial researchers who are committed to providing challenging course offerings necessary to meet the needs of the global scientific community.

In addition to Palm Beach State's AA and AS degree programs, a Biotechnology College Credit Certificate (CCC) is now being offered. Focused on those students who are currently employed in the biotech industry or those students who have received a bachelor's degree and are seeking additional experience in the field.

A non-credit, Advanced Laboratory Techniques in Biotechnology, program is also available through Palm Beach State's Corporate and Continuing Education Department. This outstanding division offers students the ability to expand their laboratory skills and techniques, at an advanced level, while using our extensive biotech equipment, including a DNA sequencer and bioreactors, housed in our state of the art labs.

Palm Beach State's biotech business partnership, consisting of over 25 different biotech firms, allows our students unique internship opportunities which develop the skills and gain the experience required for a successful career in the biotechnology field.

Location

Palm Beach State students, faculty and staff at the Banner Center for Life Sciences Booth during the Pre-Conference Career Forum Events. From left to right: Olivia Roger, Jill Diodato, Michael Butts, Priscylla Guimaraes, Alexandra Gorgevska, Wivyan Franklin, John Paluch.

NSF Biotechnology Laboratory and Skills Training (BLAST) Grant Summary:
In order to respond to the needs of south Florida's emerging bioscience industry, this project is designed to bring the Biotechnology Program at Palm Beach State College to full capacity by fortifying key elements in the biotechnology training pathway. Specific targets include increased rates of retention and graduation among biotechnology majors. Activities include: creating an active learning community for students by offering student cohort activities such as student internships and conference presentations; internal recruiting efforts by creating activities to make current students in biology courses but not yet committed to biotechnology aware of the potential of a career in biotechnology and their potential for participating in such a program and by providing professional development opportunities in biotechnology, as appropriate, for both general biology faculty and community college advisors; creating a new General Biology course as a general education course that emphasizes the molecular biology basis of biotechnology, a course that may both attract the general, not yet committed student and that may count towards their AA transfer degree; establishing peer and alumni biotechnology tutoring and mentoring programs to help students get maximum benefit from and progress at an appropriate pace through their course and internship experiences; developing rubrics in order to provide consistent feedback for students as they progress through the program and to assess which students need additional tutoring assistance. As part of creating learning communities the project is: hosting an on campus Bi-Annual Student Poster Symposia and a Biotech Awareness Week; encouraging students to present their work at meetings and conferences; and creating a Student Ambassador Program. The intellectual merit of the program lies in the rigor of the new courses being introduced. The lessons learned from establishing the learning communities represent the broader impacts of the project.